


Only The Stars

by alison



Category: One Direction (Band), Radio 1 RPF
Genre: Fluff, M/M, lots of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-03
Updated: 2013-07-03
Packaged: 2017-12-17 14:32:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/868646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alison/pseuds/alison
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Louis' last night in London before leaving for the American leg of the tour. He spends it with Nick at a playground.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Only The Stars

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [Kay](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ImNotOhKay/pseuds/ImNotOhKay) for test reading as always.

 

Nick's standing at the bar, waiting for a round of shots to be poured when he looks up and spots Harry's hair in the crowd. He smiles and beckons him over, his gaze falling to the boy behind Harry as his smile grows wider. He hugs Harry quickly, then moves to pull Louis in.

“You came,” he says, surprise in his voice.

Louis smiles and nods uncomfortably and Nick's well aware that this is not Louis' scene. They're not his friends and he's only recently warmed to Nick, so he's not quite sure why Louis decided to come, but he's glad he did.

When the bartender produces several shots, Nick immediately hands one to Louis as Harry disappears in the direction of their table, yelling greetings over the loud music and drunken chatter.

“Cheers,” Nick says, holding up his own shot, clinking the glass against Louis'.

They throw back the shots, the liquor burning Nick's throat, and he orders two more to replace them before they take the glasses back to the table. When they arrive everyone greets Louis warmly, even if they don't know him very well.

Nick's eyes seem to have a mind of their own all night, constantly glancing over to check to see if Louis' smiling, if he's having fun. He can see that he's still uncomfortable, but he does relax a bit as the alcohol works its magic. And he feels bad that this is Louis' last night in London and he's here with a bunch of distant acquaintances, but he assumes Louis has already done his goodbyes with his friends and family and just tagged along for the hell of it.

After a couple of hours, Nick is sufficiently tipsy and he pulls Louis aside.

“Want to get out of here?” He asks over the noise of the bar.

Louis' eyes flicker nervously and Nick quickly explains.

“Not like that, just-” He searches for the right words. “Just, it's your last night and you don't really know these people. Let's go have some fun. You and me.”

Louis hesitates for a moment, surveying Nick's face.

“Do you have something in mind?”

Nick smiles easily, taking the mostly empty glass from Louis' hand and setting it on a table next to them.

“I do, actually. Come on.”

He cocks his head toward the door and waits to see if Louis will accept. He does, following Nick out of the bar without saying goodbyes, taking a deep breath as they step out into the fresh air.

Nick signals a taxi and opens the door, gently pushing Louis inside. He drops in behind him and leans up to whisper to the driver, causing Louis to quirk a curious eyebrow at him.

“Shifty,” he says, the hint of smile tugging at his lips.

“Don't worry. You'll have fun.”

They ride in silence for a few minutes, but it's a comfortable silence. Nick smiles softly at nothing in particular, glancing over to see the younger boy looking more relaxed, watching the city pass by his window with a little smile as they travel down the street. When the driver stops in front of an all night corner shop, Louis looks from the shop to Nick, confused.

“I'm just going to grab something. I'll be right back.”

When Nick returns two minutes later, he happily displays a bottle of cheap champagne and Louis laughs a little.

“What's funny? This is a celebration!”

“Is it?” Louis asks, a confused smile replacing his laughter.

“'Course it is! You're off to America tomorrow, big tour and all that. It's exciting!”

And Nick understands that maybe it's not as exciting to Louis because Louis' been to America plenty and he's already a few months into the tour, but Louis doesn't point any of that out. He just smiles graciously and leans his head back until the taxi stops a few minutes later in front of a shadowy park.

Once they've gotten out and the taxi has disappeared, Louis looks at Nick, his brow furrowed in mock concern.

“You're not going to kill me and leave my body here, are you?”

Nick rolls his eyes and throws his arm around Louis' shoulders, leading him toward their destination.

“Shut up. We're going to have fun, you'll see.”

When they arrive at the playground, Nick turns to Louis, smiling. Louis looks around and finally smiles himself, nodding approvingly at the scenery as Nick pops the cork off the champagne.

They sit in the grass and drink from the bottle, passing it back and forth, and Nick's head feels light from the bubbles. Louis' smiling easily now and Nick's pretty sure his head feels light, too, can see it behind his eyes.

“I feel like we should be playing patty cake or something.”

Nick nearly chokes mid-sip and pulls the bottle away from his lips, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. He quickly scoots to sit directly in front of Louis.

“Oh yes, we're doing this,” he says with a smile, setting the almost-empty bottle next to them.

Louis' already laughing as they hover their hands in the air, trying to remember how the clapping goes. They fumble, neither being exactly sure how it goes, but they try several times before they're laughing too hard to continue. Finally, Nick clasps Louis' hands mid-air to stop them and there might be tears in his eyes from laughing, something he can't remember happening in a long time. And then Louis' squeezing his fingers around Nick's, smiling like the laughter is still there under his skin, and Nick has never seen Louis like this. He looks younger than he ever has, looks happier.

Louis rocks forward quickly to peck Nick on the lips, then pulls back, still smiling, and jumps to his feet.

“Let's race,” he says excitedly and Nick has no time to process the fact that Louis just kissed him before he's dragging himself up to his feet, stretching his legs.

Mid-stretch, Louis suddenly yells “go!” and tears off, and Nick runs after him, not successfully gaining any ground. By the time Louis stops, Nick is even further back and when he reaches him, he swats Louis' arm, complaining that it wasn't a fair race. Louis rolls his eyes, breathing heavily and concedes to a do-over. Nick is still trying to catch his own breath when they line up to race back and Nick's eyes are shining as he yells “go!”, immediately throwing his arms around Louis' waist and lifting him up before he can run.

“Hey!” Louis yells, wheezing with laughter. “Put me down this instant, I have a race to win!”

But Nick just tackles him to the ground and they wrestle halfheartedly, both boys too out of breath to put any effort behind it.

After that, they spend an hour testing out every piece of playground equipment. Louis focuses intently on walking across the wooden balance beam type thing and his laughter soars through the air as he swings. They climb and they jump and they run around until Nick feels dizzy, but he hasn't felt this young in ages and the smile won't leave his face.

“Well,” Louis says, sitting at the top of the slide. “I think I've won everything.”

“That's not true! I obviously won the monkey bars. You only made it halfway!” Nick protests, standing at the bottom of the slide, looking up.

Louis rolls his eyes.

“Your feet were touching the ground, Nick, that doesn't count. Besides, you're the only reason I fell.”

Nick smiles knowingly because he's well aware that Louis was doing just fine until he came up behind him and tickled his sides.

Louis slides down toward him until he's looming over the younger boy at the bottom.

“I'm still fairly sure I won that one.”

Louis rolls his eyes again and hops up to stand on the lip of the slide, placing his hands on Nick's shoulders.

“If it'll help you feel better about yourself, I guess I'll give you that one.”

Nick purses his lips with a pleased nod before he's smiling again and his cheeks should hurt by now from so much smiling, but they don't. Louis' smile softens for a minute and Nick is suddenly a little out of breath because there are shadows across Louis' face, only the soft glow of the moon lighting him up, but he's shining brightly even in the darkness. His eyes are twinkling and it's probably the most wonderful thing Nick has ever seen, this light radiating from him.

Louis looks up and Nick follows his gaze, finding the dark sky dotted with stars and it's uncommon for London, even out here on the outskirts of town, but tonight they're shining out over them. Nick looks for a while, tracing constellations with his eyes, before he turns back to Louis, who's still looking up. Pulling him close, he rests his forehead against Louis' chest before Louis finally looks down, pushing Nick back a bit. He turns Nick around and throws his hands over Nick's shoulders.

“Ready?” He asks and Nick somehow knows what to expect, waits as Louis jumps, using Nick's shoulders as leverage. Nick grabs Louis' knees quickly, hiking him up on his back as Louis adjusts his arms around Nick's neck.

Louis encourages him to run and Nick does, runs as fast as he can, and he should feel like a complete idiot. He's a 28 year old man running around an abandoned playground in the middle of the night with an adult man on his back. But he doesn't feel like an idiot. It feels like someone has just removed the chains that have been wrapped around him for years, chains he didn't even know were there.

He runs around the playground, Louis laughing behind his ear, until he tires out. He _is_ 28, after all, and he's had a fair amount of champagne so he stops and Louis clings onto him, their eyes returning to the stars.

Nick can feel Louis' breath, heavy with excitement, on the back of his ear. It's a strange night, he thinks. Not exactly the kind of night he'd planned, but he loves it.

“I'm closer to the stars,” Louis says quietly against Nick's ear, gazing upward.

“Hm?” Nick asks, not understanding. He pulls Louis' legs up a bit, keeping him from sliding down.

“Because you're tall,” Louis explains. “Up here, at your level... I'm closer to the stars.”

Nick can feel Louis smile against his ear before the smiling lips drop to press into the skin behind Nick's ear and the feeling almost makes him forget about the stars altogether. Louis laughs quietly, a whispered giggle against Nick's skin, and Nick knows it's not a laugh in response to anything funny. It's one of those laughs that you can't keep in when there's too much energy running through your body. The air passing by Louis' lips and falling onto Nick's skin is pure energy.

A few moments later, Nick finally drops Louis' legs and his arms fall to wrap around Nick's waist as he remembers how to stand. Nick turns until they're facing each other and Louis doesn't drop his arms, keeps them wrapped around Nick's waist. Nick looks down into the younger boy's bright eyes and he smiles, reaching a hand up and pinching Louis' nose softly.

“You're closer than anyone to the stars, Louis,” Nick says, dropping his hand. “You _are_ the stars.”

Louis grins widely and Nick hopes he understands, hopes he doesn't think he's referring to his fame.

But then Louis steps up onto his tiptoes and throws his arms around Nick's neck, dropping his head all the way back to look up at the sky again. When he pulls his head back up a moment later, he grins wildly at Nick and Nick wraps his arms around Louis' waist, pulling him in close.

“You think?” Louis asks and Nick knows he understands now.

“I think,” Nick nods, and he can't help but smile, too, Louis' happiness proving to be contagious.

Their smiling lips touch lightly when Louis leans into him and it's only a second before Louis pulls his lips away, jumping up and wrapping his legs around Nick's waist. Nick stumbles a bit, caught off guard, but he grabs Louis' legs and steadies himself. Louis laughs a bit, probably at the absurdity of the night, and Nick kisses him again, another soft, momentary kiss with no heaviness to it. When he pulls back, Louis sighs, pressing his chest against Nick's and dropping his chin onto Nick's shoulder. And he's so quiet that Nick can actually barely hear him, but the words are somehow clear in the night air.

“Maybe I'm only the stars with you.”

Nick knows it's not true; he's seen him from a distance, seen the way he shines brightly in a crowd, but he doesn't voice his disagreement. Instead, he holds the boy against him, enjoying the moment and remembering that this is Louis' farewell. In 24 hours, Louis will be in America and not in Nick's arms and he'll be shining out for a different continent. Which is only fair, really. He thinks it must be dark on that side of the globe, thinks it's only right to share the light.

Eventually Louis drops his legs and stands on his own two feet, but he doesn't let go, stays wrapped around Nick in an easy embrace. And Nick still can't stop smiling. It's just that kind of night.

“Take me home, yeah?” Louis eventually says, pulling back to look at him.

Nick doesn't even tease him about his word choice, just gets lost in the brightness of his eyes, studying the way they shine in the moonlight. He thinks he sees the stars reflecting off the glassy surface and he kisses him again because of America and the imminent darkness and his need to steal bits of light for himself before Louis' gone.

Nick calls a taxi and they ride to Louis' in silence, eyes meeting every once in a while in the dark back seat of the cab. When Louis' fingers graze his, Nick feels a bit like he's flying, like maybe he's the stars, too, in that moment.

When they get to Louis', they walk hand in hand to his bedroom where Louis immediately falls onto the bed, burying himself under the covers. Nick sits next to him on the bed, smiling down at him, the same smile that he hasn't been able to shake all night.

He kisses him once more or maybe a dozen times more; Nick's not really sure how to measure a kiss, doesn't know what its limits are. But then he's walking away and Louis' leaving and Nick should be sad, he should feel terrible, but he doesn't. He smiles as he leaves the house because he's had more fun tonight than he's had in years and he feels lighter on his feet, like gravity has loosened its grip a bit.

Besides, Louis will be back in a few months. He can wait; he's in no rush.

He can wait for the stars.

 


End file.
